Social Media Addiction and the Cure

“I am using FaceBook for chatting only, I am not addicted to it”, a conflictive sentence by a friend who was sticking her eyes in front of her mobile phones from the start of a group conversation. You should have been in that situation at least one time when everyone is talking except a person who keeps using social media during the period? In fact, most of the time talking to friends in university, they never actually talk to each other. Every effort in opening a conversation is killed because everyone is chatting with other, liking and uploading status on Facebook or Instagram. It is awkward to see how many young people today socializing on FaceBook more than in real life.

3.1 hours is average hours of using social media by Vietnamese people according to Chabrol in 2015. Of course, this is just an average, there are still many Vietnamese individuals spend the rest of their free-time surfing FaceBook and other social media platforms. In UK, a statistic shows that 26% of people prefer communicate with friends through online or device than face-to-face method according to Daily Mail in 2010. Another research conducted by Yazino and Opinium also shows that 11% of people prefer staying at home and using social media rather than meeting their friends on weekend. You can see clearly that people now are wasting their time socializing on social media instead of socializing in real life. It is because social media provides people the sense of belongingness, more entertaining activities, and a more comfortable chance to show their own identities. This idea is supported by Cohen in 2015 that the main reasons that people prefer using FaceBook, Instagram or other social media platforms: the sense of being close to their friends and family, keeping track with latest  news and events, keeping them busy, entertaining, and to reveal their own identities and opnions.

How can we stop being addicted to social media? After talking with some friends about the negative effects of social media, showing them the some videos about those effects (Example: Video 1, Video 2, etc), one had limited using FaceBook the next day, the others continued. That guy obviously experienced cognitive dissonance in a highest level and had to reduce it immediately by limiting the frequency . In fact a lot of people have experienced the same feeling with that guy when they recognise the negative effects and dissonance-arousing materials. So, how can cognitive dissonance be used to stop social media addiction?

 A little bit information about cognitive dissonance, it is defined by Festinger in 1957 as a psychological discomfortable feeling aroused when there is an inconsistent pair of cognition, belief, behavior or attitude. When people experience cognitive dissonance, they try to reduce it by giving rationalizations, the excuses, or reject the offensive contents. However if the cognitive dissonance reaches the highest level, people tend to change their belief, attitude or behavior or simply quit doing it in order to feel comfortable. A study of Johnson in 1968 illustrates that if a person endorse fewer or reject rationalizations of addict, they tend to quit or never become addict. Just like the above guy who reaches the highest level of cognitive dissonance when he watches the video, he limits the time using FaceBook and nearly quits using it. He has rejected all the rationalizations of social media addicts to feel comfortable. If you do not reject rationalizations of addicts and put efforts in quitting it, you obviously cannot stop addicting to social media, or anything else, just like David Schneider in this article “Is being addicted to social media such bad thing?”. He admits he is still addicted to social media because he has not put his effort in quitting it and still endorse excuses of addicts.  

To conclude, social media addiction has caused many problems with adults today. We are not socializing with each other, we are isolating ourselves from the society. Therefore, to stop the addiction, we should raise the level of dissonance to the highest level by watching, reading or listening dissonance-aroused materials, then put effort to stop doing it. Moreover, we must reject all rationalizations of the social media addicts to concentrate on treat ourselves for this addiction. 

Pornographic in music videos

Have you ever listened to the lyrics of Wet the bed by Chris Brown, S&M by Rihanna or Whistle by Florida? Approximately 160 in 174 songs which ranked in top 10 of the billboards in 2009 are about sex. All of those songs and music videos contain nudity, sexual acts, lyrics and reproductive messages. If you have watched or listened to one of them, you eventually have been exposed to sex. Music now has changed so much. “Music is just like a porn industry”, said Sasha Grey, an  American actress, model, author, musician and former pornographic actress. Commella in 2013 stated that there seems to have an increase of mainstreaming pornography in music videos in the mass culture because of its attractiveness and stimulus.  Wrecking Ball music videos by Miley Cyrus and Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke featuring T.I and Pharrell on YouTube channel have attracted millions of views for a short period, however, with a controversy has been created because of a deep anxiety about increase of pornography, because of the deriving benefit from pornographic by people related to that business, and because of a figure about their imagination which is taken over by a specific and limited view of sexuality.

So what is pornography? Pornography is the visual material that arouses sexual desire by showing explicit description or graphic sexual activity and visible penetration. According to Bottomore,Helbert and McKernan in 1996, with the invention of motion picture in 1895, pornography film started to be produced straightaway. Generally, pornography is categorised into softcore and hardcore both containing nudity. However, softcore pornography does not include explicit sexual activity, sexual penetration or “extreme” fetishism according to Amis in 2001. Softcore pornography still has erotic component, therefore, it is less regulated and restricted with commonly receiving a FSK-16 rating (Over 16 years old). Wrecking Ball and Blurred Lines are considered as softcore pornography. They both receive a FSK-16 rating in YouTube channel. Moreover, they are not allowed to be broadcasted in some countries, or they can be broadcasted unless they have to be censored. So, does pornography affects negatively or positively to young people in the mass culture? Some recent studies and researches actually show positive effects of pornography and its related materials.

Rarely, the conduct of sexuality is acquired by watching people having sex in real life because the older is not going to  directly teach the younger how to have sex. However, sexual explicit media (SEM), media that contains pornography such as movies, music videos and magazines, is an exception for young people to learn and observe sexual acts and arousal stimuli. By watching sexual explicit music videos, young individual may acquire knowledge about sex and gender roles. In Vietnam, 70% of young people search for pornography online daily including searching for pornography and its related materials according to Nguyen in 2013. However, it mitigates past limitations of sex education and brings a positive effects for young people as they obtain information from those channels according to Nguyen in 2012. By using SEM, young people may receive tips about sex, new sex positions or basic information about safety. Furthermore, it may change their behavior and ideology about sex as young individual is now more comfortable to talk and share about sex.

However, most of the researches and studies illustrate a plethora of negative effects divided into physical problems and mental problems. With the development of technology, a Cambridge University’s research figures out the same changes in the same brain area when a person admits he or she addicts to something. This brain area is called the reward centre, which will light up when a porn-addicted individual. The issue here is when people are addicted to porn, their tastes change rapidly. More frequently does an individual watch porn or any related materials, their sexual excitement develops, which leads to the change in their satisfaction. Just like when people watch these music videos so much, their needs change, therefore, they will need higher levels of sex-aroused media (Hardcore pornography) in order to satisfy themselves. Another study shows that young individual who is addicted to porn may fail to be responsible for their schoolworks as well as fail to be sociable and result in depression suffering.

To conclude, pornographic in music videos are increased significantly in the past decade. It has made a huge effects on people, especially on young individuals, including both negative and positive effects. However, the negative effects seem to be a little bit bigger because of the consequences about health problems and changes in self-esteem and behaviors. Therefore, we should limit the spread of pornographic in music videos and related materials.